The present invention relates generally to a material conveying apparatus, and more particularly, to a material conveying apparatus comprising a conveying conduit means which is longitudinally extendable and retractable to facilitate the conveying of various substances and materials such as concrete or the like to areas remote from the point at which the material to be conveyed is supplied to the conveyor. The present invention is particularly applicable for conveying materials such as concrete to hard to reach places such as areas below the surface of the earth for foundations and above the surface of the earth onto various floor levels during the construction of multiple story buildings.
There are several types of conveying systems which are presently being used to convey concrete or other material from the point at which the material is supplied to the point at which it is to be used. These systems include bucket conveyors, apron conveyors, and various types of endless belt conveyors. With each type of conveying system, an ultimate objective is to build a conveying system which is mobile, so that it can be easily moved from one location to another, and which has flexibility of reach to convey the materials to all areas relative to the point at which the material is supplied to the conveyor. In moe recent systems, endless belt conveyors have been mounted in telescopic relation to each other to facilitate greater reach or mounted on radially movable and longitudinally extendable booms or supports to facilitate spreading of the concrete or material over a greater area.
Although the prior concrete and material conveying systems have served their intended purpose reasonably well, there are still several disadvantages of the prior systems. First, many lack the ability to spread or convey concrete or other material over an area from a point adjacent the point at which the concrete is supplied to a point remote from that supply point. This is a particular limitation of the conventional telescoping endless belt type conveyors since there is a limit to how far the conveyor can be retracted or telescoped inwardly. Secondly, many of the prior art conveyors are limited in the vertical angle at which they can convey concrete or other materials. For example, with an open, endless belt conveyor system, the vertical angle at which concrete or other material can be conveyed is limited by the fact that if the angle becomes too great, the concrete or other material begins to fall back toward the supply point. Thus, conveyors of this sort cannot convey materials to points vertically above the supply point nor can they convey materials to a point immediately adjacent to the supply point.
For the reasons discussed above, among others, there is a real need for a concrete or other material conveying apparatus which has complete flexibility to convey such materials to a point adjacent to the point at which the materials are supplied to the conveyor as well as remote points and to convey materials to points vertically above such supply point.